Michael Janairo

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  • What was your favorite book of 2006?

    Eleanor Skinner at Flights of Fantasy, an independent science fiction and fantasy bookstore with a large gaming section and two lovely cats, weighs in with her favorites of last year:

    I will limit myself to books I read this year that were actually published in 2006. I would have to say my utter favorites of the year were The Virtu, by Sarah Monette; To Ride A Rathorn, by PC Hodgell; and The Empty Chair, a Star Trek novel by Diane Duane. All three of them had the long-awaited sequel effect going for them. They are books 2, 4, and 5 of their respective series.

    the_virtu.jpgrathorn.jpgemptychair.jpg Sarah Monette is the author of the beautifully-written fantasy series beginning with Melusine and continuing with The Mirador in August 2007. It’s about two half-brothers separated at
    birth, both abused children, one a wizard and the other a former thief and assassin. They find themselves embroiled in a maze of court politics, conspiracies, dead religions, and ancient magics.

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  • A note about Haruki Murakami

    If you’ve followed my book reviews, you’ll know that I have an interest in Japanese literature, so here’ a link to an interesting article published in Japan reflects on the importance of Haruki Murakami’s work in East Asia. The article is here. (A tip of the hat to the literary blog The Elegant Variation for pointing it out.) Here’s an excerpt:

    “Resonating with the thoughts of the times, Murakami is challenging universal issues of mankind such as history and morality, and is expected to increase his presence in an East Asian region in transition.”

  • Audio books review “World War Z”

    “World War Z,” by Max Brooks. Read by a full cast. Abridged, 6 hours. Random House Audio. $29.95.

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  • New York State Writers Institute Spring Schedule

    The New York State Writers Institute at the University at Albany announces its Spring 2007 schedule of visiting writers. The big names include Richard Ford, Leslie Marmon Silko, Elizabeth Kolbert, Michael Kammen, Edward P. Jones, Norman Mailer and Sara Paretsky. Click more below for more details.

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  • What was your favorite book of 2006?

    Biblio Files columnist Donna Liquori weighs in on her 2006 favorite:

    “The Collected Stories of Amy Hempel” tops the list of my favorite hempel.jpgbooks of 2006. The stories date from her first collection, published in 1985, to more recent works and display her breadth as one of the finest short story writers around.

    As noted by Rick Moody in the introduction, Hempel’s sentences are wonderful. Hempel doesn’t waste a single word, and each sentence is ripe with meaning and emotion. Another 2006 book I loved was “The Whole World Over” by Julia Glass.

    This holiday week, I’m enjoying one of my Christmas presents to myself — Bill Buford’s “Heat” about his experience working as a “kitchen slave” at the three-star restaurant Babbo in New York.

  • Happy New Year

    The Books Blog is back in action for 2007. An update on my previous post: I had four books I planned to read over my vacation, but I only finished one — “On Truth” — and started another — “Religious Literacy.” It was a slow end to 2006. Oh, well.

  • Travel reading

    I’ll be taking some time off for the next week or so, and I’ll of course be toting too many books for me to actually finish. This is what I’ll try to be reading:

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  • Early word on New York State Writers Institute Spring schedule

    A quick heads up: Just heard that the guests to UAlbany in the next few months are likely to include Richard Ford and Norman Mailer, among many, many others.

  • Small world

    So this past weekend, I was picking my wife up from the Millay Colony (in Austerlitz, NY), and after we loaded up the van with her supplies, I nosed around a bit and checked out the library of books published by former residents of the artists colony and came upon Janet Desnaulniers’ “What You’ve Been Missing,” the Iowa Short Fiction Award winner from 2004. As you may know from an earlier post, it was something Desnaulnier had said when I was an undergrad in the 1980s  that gave me the idea to call this blog “a conspiracy of smart people.”

    Small world? Maybe it is a conspiracy…